Living with Purpose

We are connected more than ever before.

Our access to information increases exponentially everyday, presenting us with more options to experience the material world. Ironically, the more choices we have, the greater our fragmentation, experience of a lack purpose and of social alienation.

Ultimately, this has to do with validation of our relevance in this cosmos, which is hard for the human mind to decipher because of its evolving complexity. I don’t think anyone is spared this affliction. Not even the great inventors and entrepreneurs. This is why Bill Gates has a foundation post his Microsoft career and most folks who have achieved all that they can, materially, turn to philanthropy as a way of finding meaning. Ok not Donald Trump – whose relevance is derived from immortalizing himself with his name on structures that deface the urban landscape. But you get my point! The irony of it is that we all believe that we are uniquely tortured by our “seeking”. The truth is far from it. We ALL experience certainty only in the present. And unless we are grounded in a place that is independent of the ever changing material world, we are constantly insecure in our experience of “purposelessness”. So then how do we cope? We can simply redefine purpose to not be of the mind but of a place where there is silence from the chatter of thought and ego.

That stillness we experience within when we are suspended in space and time – in a manner of speaking! Here are some simple thoughts ( yes, of the mind but of living beyond!)

The Tree of Life by Gustav Klimt (1909)

1. Purpose is incremental. It’s being alert and attentive in everyday things.
2. Purpose does not have to be grand and large. It’s the little acts of kindness everyday. One selfless act. One kind and forgiving thought even about yourself.
3. Purpose is not in the doing but in the being. It’s having a vision of the life you want and going about your every day tasks attentively and with an open mind.
4. Purpose is not willing things to happen but allowing them to happen.
5. Purpose is accepting things as they are without trying to change things. In that state of “non conflict” change will come.
6. Purpose is being genuine, authentic and real.
7. Purpose is being compassionate with yourself and others.
8. Purpose is having the conviction to speak for yourself, what’s real for you in the moment and never second guessing yourself once you are done.
9. Purpose is being grateful everyday and in every moment.
10. Above all, purpose is the dynamic and evolving relatedness between yourself and the universe.

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Latha Sukumar is a lawyer and social entrepreneur whose crowning moment was winning a National Award from the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund in April 2010, for being one of 15 lawyers in Canada who has advanced the equality rights of women.
An advocate for the rights of new comers, Latha has served on a number of community boards and she has spoken in the media, before legislative committees and at public gatherings on victim rights issues. Besides being a social entrepreneur, Latha is an avid blogger, a yoga teacher and Vipassana meditator.
Latha believes that new discoveries about us are necessary to be applied to grow our life and work and she loves creating and participating in entrepreneurial opportunities.